Conventional systems for controlling appliances and devices, such as garage door openers, security gates, home alarms, lighting, computers, etc., use individual remote controls to operate a respective appliance and/or device. With this conventional system, it is difficult to control multiple devices or appliances, much less consolidate operation of the appliances and devices into a single, controllable system. For example, garage door opener mechanisms open and close a garage door in response to a radio frequency control signal. The control signal is typically generated and transmitted from a remote control that is sold with the garage opener. The control signal has a preset carrier frequency and control code such that the garage door opener mechanism is responsive only to the remote control issuing the associated control signal. A problem associated with this type of system is that the door opener must receive a specific predetermined control signal in order to be operated. That is, each appliance and device must receive a specific predetermined control signal. Therefore, a user wishing to control multiple appliances and/or devices is required to have multiple remote controls.
With an ever evolving technological society, there is an increasing demand for a communication system that is capable of operating multiple appliances and devices in a consolidated manner. Communication systems currently exist which enable multiple appliances and devices to communicate with a central or single remote device. One such system is Homelink™, owned by Johnson Controls, Inc., in which a trainable transceiver is able to “learn” characteristics of received control signals such that the trainable transceiver may subsequently generate and transmit a signal having the learned characteristics to a remotely controlled device or appliance. FIG. 1 is an example of a wireless control system 12 having a transceiver circuit 14 and a remote electronic system 16 (remote device) which also has a transceiver circuit 18. One such system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,903,226, hereby incorporated by reference. Another such system is disclosed in EP Pat. No. 0 935 226 B 1, also hereby incorporated by reference.
In order for the trainable transceivers to operate, each signal is typically associated with a user-actuated switch 20 or a user selects one of the learned signals on the trainable transceiver by selecting an associated switch 20 (e.g. by pressing a button on the trainable transceiver associated with the device to be operated). For example, a user may select one or multiple of buttons B1, B2, B3 illustrated in FIG. 2. For the trainable transceiver to learn the signal characteristics of various signals of different length and duration, the amount of memory 22 provided and allocated within the trainable transceiver for each transmission channel must be sufficient to store the characteristics of the largest signal to be learned.
Additionally, in order for the trainable transceiver to work properly in the communication system, it must be compatible to the appliance or device, and in particular, with potentially numerous appliances and devices that the trainable transceiver is likely to communicate with over the course of time. Naturally, it is difficult to predict which appliances and/or devices a user may wish to control such that the trainable transceiver may be programmed for compatibility. Moreover, as new appliances and devices are developed, after the trainable transceiver has been initially programmed, there is no current process to update the trainable transceiver such that the new appliances and devices are compatible for use in the communication system.